David Piper: North Sterling State Park still has fish

September fish kill left many but not all dead, gill net survey planned for November

David Piper, manager of North Sterling State Park, talks with Jay Lee and David McClain after a Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday. Piper talked about the fish kill earlier this fall, noting there are still fish in the reservoir, just not as many. (Callie Jones/Journal-Advocate)

STERLING — There are fish at North Sterling State Park. That was the message Park Manager David Piper shared at a Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday, when he discussed the fish kill that occurred last month.

He started by talking about the impact NSSP has on the community. A 2008-2009 study showed that people coming to the park from more than 50 miles away from Logan County were contributing about $4.7 million to the city of Sterling and Logan County.

“Things that are happening at the reservoir definitely have impacts on the local community out here,” Piper said.

That includes the fish kill, which started Sept. 16. By Sept. 18, NSSP had their fishery biologist for this region come out and they determined it was "bad."

Piper was away on vacation and wasn't able to give his input when a press release came out saying there was a total fish die off. That isn't the case.

“I think one of the reasons they put (the press release) out, the biologist got about a two hour snapshot of what was going on. She was assuming this die off was going to continue and we were going to have more fish coming in,” Piper said. “They didn't want to say ‘oh, it's not so bad' and then later on have to say ‘well, I guess it really was bad.' So they kind of put a worst case scenario out there to everybody, that we had a major fish die off, be prepared.”

But not all the fish are dead.

Advertisement

“There are still fish out there,” Piper said. “Not as many -- we did lose some -- but it's not a complete loss.”

As evidence, he shared that on Oct. 7 a fisherman caught an eight-pound wiper.

The dead fish were left at the lake, “to provide nutrients into the water that would allow the smaller organisms that would feed on that to feed the smaller fish and the food chain would be productive.”

Though a fish kill in September left many fish dead at North Sterling State Park, manager David Piper says not all the fish were killed. The park plans to do a gill net survey in November, to find out what fish are left and get an idea of how to proceed with stocking next spring.
(Journal-Advocate file photo)

Had there been significantly more dead fish they may have hauled them to a rendering plant or to a farmer's field for fertilizer.

One of the biggest concerns is the loss of all the shad, which is what fish eat.

“It does look like we lost all of our age classes of shad, from the little ones to the big ones,” Piper said. “That is a problem and we are going to work on that.”

When NSSP lost its entire shad population in 2002, he said it took almost eight years to get the shad back established and start growing fish again. Prewitt and Jumbo Reservoir's lost all their shad that year as well, but they rebounded within a year or two.

Piper said NSSP did lose some game fish as well, quite a few wiper and walleye, but not all age classes.

“Very few crappie were found, just a handful, so that means we've got a good chance of having a lot of crappie still in there.”

There were also very few yellow perch, largemouth and smallmouth bass, northern pike, trout or catfish found dead.

“There's still fish in the reservoir,” Piper said. “We don't know for sure what's in there and the species composition and age classes as of right now.”

“North Sterling State Park will have fish next spring, unless something else happens, which you can't predict, the ice comes on we could lose some more fish. But as of right now, today, I know that we have fish out there.”

A combination of three things caused the fish to die – low water; the reservoir turning over like reservoirs normally do, with cold water on the bottom becoming warmer and warm water on top becoming cooler; and windy days during the turnover.

They're already planning how to bring the fish back. In November, they will do a gill net survey to catch fish and get an idea of what's there.

“What that will tell us is species composition and the types of species that we have in the reservoir,” Piper said. “We'll be able to hopefully determine age classes of fish, what species we still have left in there and that will allow us to have some sort of scientific knowledge of how to proceed with our stocking this next spring.”

The stocking will be very aggressive.

“I've already talked to my biologist, I've talked to the head biologist for the agency, I've talked to my region directors and I've been confirmed and told that this will be an aggressive restocking program,” Piper said. “They will put as many fish into this reservoir as they possibly can.”

The biggest problem is going to be getting the shad started up, but there is still bluegill in the lake for fish to eat and that will help reestablish the shad.

Piper said he's also working with park managers on the Front Range who are letting anglers know there are still fish.

He pointed out though that it could potentially take two or three years to get the fishing back to what it was this year.

“Two to three years I'm hoping is the worst case scenario. I'm hoping within a year or two we'll get the shad going again, everything will be feeding on bluegill, we'll be okay.”

The park will continue to monitor and do the gill net survey every fall to check species composition and see what's growing to see if they need to alter their stocking.

For more information on NSSP, visit http://www.parks.state.co.us/parks/northsterling/Pages/NorthSterling.aspx.

RE-1 Valley School District has announced its policy for determining eligibility of children who may receive free and reduced price meals served under the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Program.
Full Story